A new oven!

Little studio apartments like mine never come with built in ovens like in America!   For the past year I've used a tiny little easy bake oven, but after I spent a whole day baking Christmas cookies for my co-workers it konked out!  Booo!

Lucky for me, I have a thoughtful boyfriend who knew I needed a new and improved oven so I could continue my newly found love for baking yummy treats (which sadly is on hold until March 1st when I return from my vacation to the Phillipines and I no longer have to be seen in my bikini!  I'm getting ready for my "summer body" as we say in Korea and am only eating oober healthy food... boring, but worth it!)    

Anyway, back to my story!  I have a new oven!  It's twice as big as my old one and it's already been used twice... not by me though!  Aaron has taken over my kitchen and baked delicious healthy dinners two nights in a row!  Tomorrow I'm gonna do some pinterest browsing and see if I can find some healthy baking recipies so I can actually try my hand at using the oven! :)

Sunday Puzzle!

Aaron was watching football all day today on my new BIG TV, and I was starting to get antsy and knew it was time for a project!  Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything I was dying to create, so Aaron, noticing my antsyness, pipped up, 

"Why don't you find a puzzle to do!"  

YES! Great idea!

So off I walked to my neighborhood supermarket in hopes that they might, just maybe, have a puzzle to buy! I wasn't getting my hopes up, since I've never seen them there, but I went anyway! 

I walked every toy, school supply and sport isle to no avail... but decided to ask a worker anyway, JUST INCASE!  Good thing I did, because he walked me over to an entire table FULL OF PUZZLES!!!

I've loved puzzles ever since I was a little girl!  So, the thought of tediously placing 500 little pieces together was my idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon!

I think it took me 3 hours to finish it!  I then asked Aaron to take it apart for me while I went into the other room.  There's something not right about spending hours completing a puzzle just to take it all apart again!  He obliged. :)

After I finished, we took a taxi over to Lotte for some dinner, shopping and coffee on the rooftop deck!  Then we had a nice, brisk walk in the winter air and finished the weekend off with a movie: Contagion!  If you haven't seen it yet; beware! It's intense! 

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty great day!

Opening Day Dancers!

I caught this on my walk home from work today! 

The good ole' "Opening Day Dancers" are hired to sing, dance and talk about the stores opening day sales!

Apparently sexy women singing and dancing, and a man on stilts, will bring in the customers... who knew?!

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Best Travel Photos!

About a month ago, my dad sent me an e-mail about a photography contest with a travel website that was asking for people's travel photos from 2012.  He thought Aaron and I should submit some of ours, so on a whim, I went ahead and entered the contest!  

Turns out 1,600 pictures were submitted and Aaron and I ended up both winning and getting both of our photos published on their website list of the top travel photos of 2012.   Mine is picture #3 of Railay Beach in Thailand and Aaron's is picture #4 of a temple we went to in Korea!

We're famous! LOL  Thanks dad!

www.smartertravel.com

Knott's Berry Farm!

Aaron and I have been helping my dad download books onto his Kindle, which gave Aaron the itch to buy one for himself!  So, I looked on Craigslist last night and made a deal with a kid who had a new one in the box to sell it to us for $60!  SCORE!  What was even cooler was he lived in Buena Park which was where we were headed today! 

Aaron's one request was to either spend a day at Knott's or Disneyland while he was in Cali!  Since we were just at TOKYO Disneyland a couple months ago, we decided on Knott's, and I'm so glad we did!  He hadn't been since he was 5 and I hadn't been since High School!   I noticed on their website that if you brought 2 cans of food, they would take $29 dollars off your ticket price! 

So, guess who came with 4 cans!?  haha

Minutes after we entered the park, a woman on a loud speaker asked that everyone stop and pay tribute to their country by singing the national anthem!  How funny is that?   So, everyone stopped what they were doing and sang it!

I'll be honest, we almost didn't go to Knott's today because I told Aaron I wouldn't ride the rollercoasters with him!  I have terrible anxiety about being strapped in somewhere and not to mention heights - eeek!  I turn into a complete stressball!  Even just looking at a picture like this would send me running in the opposite direction!

In the past, I've stood in line for rollercoasters with friends and then walked across the rollercoast seat and waited for them on the other side while they rode!  Lame, I know! 

But today, I made it my goal to just suck it up and ride them... and I did - ALL OF THEM! 

Don't get me wrong, I was terrified for the 1st one, which was a rollercoaster that spins!  Sounds scary, but it was in the kid area, so I figured I'd be a big wuss if I didn't at least try it! 

...but then after I rode it and laughed the whole time, I realized how fun and exillerating rollercoasters actually are; if you can get past the being strapped in thing!  I was ready to conquer the world of rollercoasters!  My 2nd choice was the Jaguar!  As you can see, Aaron was happy with my new found affinity for rollercoasters!

... and so was I!  I even jumped in the front row!

Sssooooo fun! 

After my 2nd rollercoaster, I was ready for The Excellerator!  Talk about conquering a fear of heights!  It goes 87 mph, up 205 feet in the air, then drops at a 90 degree angle! This ended up being my favorite ride of the whole day!  Go figure, huh?!  I acually rode it twice!

Next was Boomerang, which "puts you head-over-heals six times in less than a minute!  Then just when you think it's safe to breath, it gives it to you all over again... BACKWARDS!"

Then I toned it down a little for some Log Ride action!

... I loved this ride as a kid and still do,

although the drop at the end is not as ginormous as I remember it being!

By this point, we were pretty hungry for lunch!  Lucky for us, they actually had a Johnny Rockets in the park!  I love that place!

I was on a roll with the whole rollercoaster thing, but NO ONE wants to go on one after eating a big lunch... so we let our tummy's chill and rode the train for a bit!

 

Next up was the Pony Express rollercoaster!  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride a rollercoaster while saddling up on a fake horse!  It was genius as far as I was concerned!

 

Believe it or not, it was about 80 degrees all day!  There were people walking around in shorts, and I, myself, was wearing a measly tank top and was actually still hot!  Good ole' California sunshine! Lucky for us, Knott's has a ride called Big Foot Rapids, where you're sure to get drenched!  ... and we did! :)

 

I don't know if it was the time of year, or the fact that we went on a weekday (Thursday), but we never had to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for the rides!  It was GREAT!

 

Next was Ghostrider!  While it doesn't go upside down, it does go118 feet in the air and then drops 108!   Not to mention it's one of the longest and tallest wooden rollercoaster in the world!

 

Last but not least, we headed over to The Silver Bullet... probably the scariest ride in the park!  It goes 146 feet in the air and then drops 109 feet!  It spirals, corkscrews, cobra rolls, and goes upside down 6 times, including a 105 ft tall loop!  Eeekkk!   I took it like a pro though and felt really proud of myself!

 This is my official victory picture!

Aaron was so proud of me and my rollercoaster bravery!   It was a really special day for me in my fight over anxiety!   It got me one step closer to conquering all my fears!

 

It definitely helped having this guy next to me the whole day!  Thanks A!